Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Locked on Sports: To foul or not: The answer is simple

Locked on Sports: To foul or not: The answer is simple: "When a basketball team is up by three points in the final seconds of a game, it has the option to foul the other team. This puts the opponent at the free-throw line, eliminating the chance of hitting a game-tying 3-pointer.

Numerous variables go into this decision: how much time is left, rebounding, inbounds plays and more.

However, no matter how you crunch the numbers, the correct move is to foul.

Yet coaches make their decisions based on fear of the worst-case scenario and blow this call almost every time.

Friday night, Washington had a three-point lead with seven seconds to play and decided not to foul a Connecticut player. Instead, Rashad Anderson, a 41-percent shooter from 3-point range, tied the game with 1.8 seconds left.

I can comfortably say had the Huskies fouled instead of trying to prevent the shot, they would have played another game and possibly would be on their way to Indianapolis for the Final Four."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The answer isn't simple...you're just using percentages from the NBA and using them in NCAA.

The 3-Pt line is closer in the NCAAA's but shooters are more inconsistent than NBA shooters. I don't think you can pull statistics from the NBA and tranfers them to the NCAA's and expect them to hold.

I'm sure if you had the numbers from the NCAA's you'd use them, but I still agree with the coaches. Up by 3, you know what they need to do. You know who'll they'll likely target and where they'll want it.

When you're playing the rebound, you'll never know what'll happen and with the way the UW Huskies were getting fouls called against them, I would be surprised if UConn were given another trip to the line anyway.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that was fuckin dumb Locke, you put no thought into that at all, just parroting what someone else said, LAME.


God this is soooooo awesome, Locke, you're a fuckin' douche bag. Do you know that Gordon Curvey is payin me to fuck with you? There's a whole movement in the Central District to get black people to stop listening to KKKJR until you bring in more on air talent of ethnic proportions (lol). Right now we are passing around a petition to get the 2liveStews on air in Seattle we have 2,647 signatures right now. This is soooo great. :) Have a good one Lockester, ya bitch. :)